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For more than 100 years the Society of Professional Journalists has been dedicated to encouraging a climate in which journalism can be practiced more freely and fully, stimulating high standards and ethical behavior in the practice of journalism and perpetuating a free press.

About the Foundation

Since its founding in 1961, the Sigma Delta Chi Foundation has promoted excellence and ethics in journalism. The SDX Foundation is a tax-exempt, 501(c)(3) organization that supports the educational programs of the Society of Professional Journalists and serves the professional needs of journalists and students pursuing careers in journalism.

Excellence in Journalism 2017Sept 7-9, 2017 – Anaheim

Excellence in Journalism is the national journalism conference of the Society of Professional Journalists and the Radio Television Digital News Association. Join us in September in Anaheim for training, networking, workshops and more!

SPJ Leads

SPJ News

SPJ Blogs: Newest Posts

Quill Headlines

Journalist's Toolbox

@SPJ_Tweets

Connect with SPJ

SPJ on Facebook

Upcoming Eventsand Deadlines

Become an SPJ Member

For more than 100 years the Society of Professional Journalists has been dedicated to encouraging a climate in which journalism can be practiced more freely and fully, stimulating high standards and ethical behavior in the practice of journalism and perpetuating a free press.

About the Foundation

Since its founding in 1961, the Sigma Delta Chi Foundation has promoted excellence and ethics in journalism. The SDX Foundation is a tax-exempt, 501(c)(3) organization that supports the educational programs of the Society of Professional Journalists and serves the professional needs of journalists and students pursuing careers in journalism.

Excellence in Journalism 2017Sept 7-9, 2017 – Anaheim

Excellence in Journalism is the national journalism conference of the Society of Professional Journalists and the Radio Television Digital News Association. Join us in September in Anaheim for training, networking, workshops and more!

Image of original document of the first Geneva Convention from 1864 courtesy Kevin Quinn, Ohio, US; licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution license

Attempts to put limits on wartime behavior have been around
since the beginning of recorded history and there have been numerous attempts
to codify the rules of appropriate military conduct.

In the sixth century BCE, Chinese warrior Sun Tzu suggested
putting limits on the way that wars were conducted.

Around 200 BCE, the notion of war crimes as such appeared in
the Hindu code of Manu.

In 1305, the Scottish national hero Sir William Wallace was
tried for the wartime murder of civilians.

Hugo Grotius wrote "On the Law of War and Peace" in 1625, focusing
on the humanitarian treatment of civilians.

In 1865, Confederate officer Henry Wirz was executed for murdering
Federal prisoners of war at the Andersonville prisoner of war camp. He was only
one of several people who were tried for similar offenses.

In fact, it's been the past century and a half that has really
seen a qualitative jump in the degree to which constraints have been placed
on warring parties, and only this century that an international body has been
formed to police the nations of the world.

The first Geneva Convention was signed in 1864 to protect the
sick and wounded in war time. This first Geneva Convention was inspired by Henri
Dunant, founder of the Red Cross. Ever since then, the Red Cross has played
an integral part in the drafting and enforcement of the Geneva Conventions.

These included the 1899 treaties, concerning asphyxiating gases
and expanding bullets. In 1907, 13 separate treaties were signed, followed in
1925 by the Geneva Gas Protocol, which prohibited the use of poison gas and
the practice of bacteriological warfare.

In 1929, two more Geneva Conventions dealt with the treatment
of the wounded and prisoners of war. In 1949, four Geneva Conventions extended
protections to those shipwrecked at sea and to civilians.

The Hague Convention on the Protection of Cultural Property
was signed in 1954, the United Nations Convention on Military or Any Other Hostile
Use of Environmental Techniques followed in 1977, together with two Additional
Protocols to the Geneva Conventions of 1949, extending their protections to
civil wars.

There is no one "Geneva Convention." Like any other body of
law, the laws of war have been assembled piecemeal, and are, in fact, still
under construction.

It is impossible to produce a complete and up-to-date list
of war crimes. Even today, weapon systems such as land mines are being debated
at the highest levels of international policy.

What follows is a basic reference to the most common protections
and prohibitions, as provided for in the four 1949 Geneva Conventions and the
two 1977 protocols.